WELLAND - Brock University wants to be an active member of the community.

Its president Jack Lightstone shared history of the university and its new community-minded mentality during a visit with Rotary Club of Welland on Tuesday.

"In 1999, Brock made the historic decision to radically rethink the type of university it wanted to be," Lightstone told the packed room at CJs Restaurant.

That year, Brock decided to become a "comprehensive university" that focused not only on education but also on research and progression within the institution, he said.

That ideology progressed over the years, Lightstone said, but about three years ago the university experienced a "mid-life identity crisis" and had to determine what made it unique as an educational institution.

The university was "chasing other institutions," all which were moving toward being the same, he said.

"We were like every other comprehensive university in Ontario," Lightstone said, adding Brock could have been located anywhere "within a 200-kilometre radius of the CN Tower and be exactly the same university."

That's when a simple question was asked: Does place matter?

"Yes, it matters," he told Rotarians.

The university operates in two distinct worlds - the world of academe and the world of the community, he said.

"Brock has to understand the need to make contributions to both worlds, to link both worlds."

This makes community partnerships, such as the one with the city of Welland, key, he added.

Brock has signed a memorandum of understanding Welland, agreeing to relocate and further develop its Human Performance Centre as a tenant within the Welland International Flatwater Centre - a facility being built for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

The university plans to continue to form community partnerships and immerse itself in the world of community that is Niagara, he said.